Instant Pot Thai Coconut Mango Sticky Rice (Khao Niao Mamuang)

Instant Pot Thai Coconut Mango Sticky Rice (Khao Niao Mamuang)-This popular Thai Coconut Mango Sticky Rice is made with Instant Pot and required no soaking of the rice. Soft and creamy as it should be! Non-instant pot method is also available

I’ve only owned Instant Pot for 3 days so far as I’m typing this post up and I’ve already cooked quite few things within these 3 days LOL! It’s seriously like an obsession or something! I’m pretty impressed by it so far. I’ve sauteed with it, I’ve steamed with it, I’ve pressure cooked with it. In fact, I made 3 of the Instant Pot Chinese Steamed Matcha Sponge Cake in a day! Crazy!

Anyway, sticky rice is very common in Asian cooking, especially in Southeast Asia where we don’t only use it for savory but also sweet dishes. They are known by many names: Sticky rice, glutinous rice, and sweet rice, but they mean the same thing! And…as you’ve guessed it, there’s always coconut milk involves 😉

White glutinous rice / sticky rice/ sweet rice

This Thai Coconut Mango Sticky Rice (Khao Niao Mamuang) is one of our favorite Southeast Asian desserts! LOVE..this stuff! I usually have to soak the sticky rice in water for at least 4 hours or overnight and then it can be steamed in 20 minutes. But with Instant Pot, I don’t have to soak it and I can steam it on high pressure.

I was a bit skeptical actually, to be honest! I was just experimenting but at the end of the cooking time, I was very pleased with the result. The rice is so sticky and soft like it should to make khao niao mamuang.

Mom thought I was out of my mind when I told her I would try to steam the sticky rice without soaking it first. Without a pressure cooker, definitely, this can’t be done! Well, you can, but it will take you a long time to steam it.

WHAT I LIKE ABOUT MAKING THIS THAI COCONUT MANGO STICKY RICE WITH INSTANT POT??
NO SOAKING! and so I can literally make this without planning ahead.
No foggy windows and condensation dripping down the window glasses. That’s the phenomenon here whenever I steam something for more than 30 minutes using a regular steamer that I set up.

DISCLOSURE: This post contains affiliate links, which support this site at no extra cost to you. Learn more.

*Recipe is written for 6-quart Instant Pot. Cooking time should remain the same for 8-quart size but will take longer to pressurize. For mini duo (3-quart), I recommend to half the recipe and use the same amount of time to cook*

Instant Pot Thai Coconut Mango Sticky Rice (Khao Niao Mamuang)

This popular Thai Coconut Mango Sticky Rice is made with Instant Pot and required no soaking of the rice. Soft and creamy as it should be! Non-instant pot method is also available.

Cooking equipment recommended:

Instructions

Cooking the sticky rice:

Add 2 cups of water in Instant Pot inner pot. Put the trivet in there. Rinse the sticky rice in water briefly. Drain off water. Place the rice in heat-proof glass or stainless steel bowl. Add 1 1/2 cups water to cover the rice. Give it a quick stir and make sure all rice is submerged in water. Place this on top of the trivet. Close the lid, steam release handle to sealed. Press pressure cook and set to high pressure and use -/+ to set the time to 15 minutes

When the sticky rice is done cooking, I waited for about 10 minutes and make sure that the float valve is down. Then turn the steam handle to venting. Once the steam is all out and stops hissing, open the lid carefully. The sticky rice should be soft and sticky. Remove from Instant Pot and pour half of the coconut sauce on the sticky rice while the rice is still warm and stir to mix. It may seem wet at this point. Cover to let the rice absorbs the coconut sauce

Making the coconut sauce:

While the sticky rice is cooking, pour 1 cup of the coconut milk in a saucepan, add sugar, salt, and pandan leaves in. Let it gently simmer for about 5 minutes or until the sugar dissolves. Do not boil the coconut milk. Remove the pandan leaves (if using) and use your spoon to squeeze out last few drops of coconut milk from the leaves if any

Cutting the mango:

Peel the mango and cut in small cubes. You can use this hedgehog method for easier cutting: Slice both mangoes down either side of the stone. Take each half and score a crisscross pattern about 2 cm down through the flesh, stopping at the skin. Turn the skin inside out so the mango pieces pop up. Trim the skin off the middle bit where the stone is, then cut them into cubes as well so you are not throwing any extra flesh away

Putting them together:

Serve with cubes of mango, sprinkle with sesame seeds and coconut sauce on the sides for more drizzling

Notes

The amount of water may vary slightly depending on the kind of sticky rice. You may need to cut back the water to 1 to 1 1/4 cups if the result is too mushy to your liking.

If you are making this on the same day, you don’t need to reheat, because they can be served at room temperature. You can warm up the coconut sauce a little bit (not boiling it though) on the sauce pan or microwave if it gets too thick when it’s cool down. If you plan to make this ahead and keep them in the fridge, then you can reheat in the microwave. You want to separate or “fluff” the rice with a fork first, sprinkle with some water (just a bit, not too much) and then cover with some wet paper towel and microwave for a minute or less and see if it’s warm enough and get the sticky rice back to soft.

Hi Betsy, yes, the 1/2 tsp of salt is added to the coconut milk. Sorry that I left that out in the instruction. I have added it. Thank you for pointing that out. Please let me know how it turns out for you when you have a chance 🙂

Fran, Thank you for letting me know. I used the Thai Elephant before and also the three rings brand and they always turn out ok for me. Maybe you can try 1 1/4 or yes 1 cup water instead and see how it turns out. Sorry for the trouble. I have to experiment further with different brands and update recipe then.

The sticky rice to water ratio is 1:1.5 .I used 1 cup of rice in the recipe, if you need to half the recipe to fit the 3qt, let’s say 1/2 cup of rice then you will use 3/4 cup or water. I hope this helps.

You can try to thicken it with cornstarch. Use about 2 tsp of corn starch + 3 tsp of water and then mix them thoroughly and then stir into the coconut milk and then gently simmer over low to medium heat (do not boil) until it thickens. You can also try coconut cream for thicker creamier consistency next time. Sometimes different brands of coconut milk may be slightly different. Hope this helps. Please let me know if anything is unclear.

I made this tonight (day 3 with the instapot) and it turned out very nicely. I used 1 cup of rice to 1 1/4 cups of water. I also used a single can of coconut milk and reduced the sugar and salt accordingly. Thank you for the great instructions. Very simple and satisfying!

Hi, this looks great and I’m very excited. Reading through this I see 2 Cups coconut milk listed but only see 1 cup used. I thought it went in the rice after cooking but it says sauce… so 2 cups milk but I only cook 1 and add half cup cooked sauce to the rice and drizzle the other half cup on top mango? Or do I cook up both cups so I can add a cup to the rice and have a cup to drizzle?

Hi Janna,
So sorry for the typo. It should be 1 cup of coconut milk, I forgot to update the amount on ingredient list when I updated the recipe. So, 1 cup of coconut milk that you make into coconut sauce, then pour about 3/4 of the coconut sauce (not milk) it to the rice after cooking and the rest is for you to drizzle on top if you want extra. I hope that makes sense.

Hello! This was sheer perfection! I used all of your ingredients in the exact measurements. Used the trivet, a 7 inch metal bowl, everything. I was so excited how perfect and amazing it turned out. Good job on this!